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Dragon's Domain Records presents STARSHIP INVASIONS, featuring the premiere release of the score on compact disc, composed by Gil Mellé (NIGHT GALLERY, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE DELIBERATE STRANGER) for the 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Ed Hunt, starring Robert Vaughn (THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, BULLITT, HUSTLE), Christopher Lee (THE WICKER MAN, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, HORROR OF DRACULA), Daniel Pilon, Tiiu Leek, Helen Shaver, Henry Ramer and Victoria Johnson.
STARSHIP INVASIONS is a Canadian science-fiction film written, directed and produced by Ed Hunt, it was originally titled WAR OF THE ALIENS, then ALIEN ENCOUNTER to avoid confusion with other similar-themed movies released that same year (and eventually again retitled as PROJECT GENOCIDE for home video). Hunt based many of the spacecraft and costume designs on actual alien encounter cases.
Released in 1977, the plot revolves around The Legion Of The Winged Serpent, a rogue alien group lead by Captain Rameses (Lee). The Legion must colonize the Earth before their home planet, Alpha, is destroyed by a supernova. Rameses plans to use a device that broadcasts a signal causing humans to commit mass suicide. Opposing them is The Intergalactic League Of Races, an alliance of advanced aliens from Zeta Reticuli who have been observing humans from a secret underwater base.
Pretending to be fellow members upholding The Galactic Treaty, which prohibits human contact, Rameses and his crew attack their base and sabotage most of the League's Earthbound saucers. One surviving League ship contacts Professor Allan Duncan (Vaughn) for help. Duncan is a world-renowned ufologist.
The score composed by Gil Mellé stands out for its innovative use of synthesizers combined with jazz elements, creating a unique sound for a genre movie. Notably, many sequences have minimal dialogue, as the alien characters communicate telepathically, which benefited Mellé in his composition.
For nearly five decades, composer Gil Mellé innovated in mixing electronic and orchestral music when he wasn't playing the nuances of modern jazz or enjoying his collection of unique microscopes at home. Mellé had made a mark in the world of jazz as an outstanding baritone saxophonist and composer who was also noted as a painter. In film and television, his music has been extraordinarily notable, if not well preserved, on records and CDs. His TV-movie music in the early '70s included a trio of high-profile films for television: MY SWEET CHARLIE, THAT CERTAIN SUMMER, and FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY. His most well-known film score was THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, but as an innovator in the use of electronic music in movies of the 1970s and '80s, Mellé contributed to a many science fiction, fantasy, and horror television and feature film scores, including NIGHT GALLERY (theme and episodes), THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (original TV-movie), A COLD NIGHT'S DEATH, THE QUESTOR TAPES, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, WORLD WAR III, and many others. Mellé's efforts preceded almost everyone else's experiments in electronic film music and resulted in the first true electronic film score for the TV movie PERILOUS VOYAGE.
Dragon's Domain Records presents STARSHIP INVASIONS, featuring the premiere release of music composed by Gil Mellé for this project on compact disc. The music has been newly mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland and the liner notes have been written by author G.B. Kemner.
- BSX
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